As the popularity of coffee and tea grows, there is a demand for greater variety in these beverages. Some of the more common varieties of coffee are Colombian, French Roast, Kona, and Costa Rican. Some of the more common tea varieties are Black, Oolong, Green, and White. Preferred water temperature for coffee varies from about 195° F. to about 205° F. Preferred water temperatures for the various types of tea can vary from about 140° F. for high quality green tea to about 208° F. for black tea.
The proper brew time of each of the various coffees is mainly determined by the grind size. Finely ground coffee is brewed quickly, while coarse ground coffees must be brewed slowly to allow water to penetrate the larger particles. Brew time can also be lengthened or shortened to increase or decrease the strength of either coffee or tea, according to taste.
To accommodate all these variations an automatic, programmable beverage brewing apparatus is required. There are several programmable beverage brewing apparatuses now available in the market. To operate these units, a user may select different water temperatures and brewing times for different types of beverages and program them into the brewer. However, programming such machines can be challenging when used by people, who are not very familiar with electronic appliances and with programming procedures/systems. It can take as many as 25 steps to program one of these units.
The displays used in many programmable beverage brewing apparatuses are usually small and very limited, and therefore are not interactive with the user. To reduce cost some devices may use fewer keys, but a reduced number of keys can also introduce a confusing number of key combinations to memorize. Therefore, even though they may not be completely lacking in general knowledge of programming electronic devices, users are often obliged to consult the related instruction booklet (which may not be readily available, and when it is available is not always completely understandable), and the potential of the programming device can almost never be entirely exploited.
Therefore, there is a need for a programmable beverage brewer that is easily programmable by a user having little to no knowledge or experience in programming such device.